The whole episode was captured on tape and the following day Mike Hedges set about recording it with the aid of his newly acquired toy, a 'dummy head microphone' (this is a fibre glass mannequins head with built in microphones in its ears, which is supposed to simulate the sound (s) you (the listener) would hear - in fact it produces a binaural effect, something that Lou Reed has experimented with on his solo recordings in the past).  Mike installed it in the piano and a six minute backing track comprising of piano and drums recorded.  It was two or three weeks before they did any further work on the track, by which time Siouxsie had written lyrics for it.  She recorded a rough vocal onto it, Robert added guitar, then they started to edit it from its original six minutes down to four.  All this completed, it wasn't until December that it was completed with Steve's bass contribution.  So it transpired that although Swimming Horses was one of the tracks almost finished really early on in the recording of the album, nothing was done about it until all the other tracks were finished and a decision had to be made regarding the choice of a single, which meant it was around for three or four months before it was actually released in its finished form.

The group never imagined Swimming Horses as a single, that was Mike Hedges' idea, one which was originally rejected at the time of its suggestion because the track was still six minutes long.

On to 1984... for the writing and recording of the b - sides to accompany the 7" and 12" single versions of Swimming Horses, the group (unaccompanied by The Cure committed Robert) changed location from The Angel to The Garden (John Foxx's  studio) at Steve's suggestion, because he and Robert had worked together there as The Glove, hence he was already familiar with the surroundings and knew it was possible to work really fast there.

DAY ONE:- 3rd February, they recorded the backing tracks for both the songs.  For HUMMING WIRES they firstly recorded all the keyboards and drums, then Siouxsie and Steve added guitars.  On LET GO they recorded drums, vocals and keyboards.

DAY TWO:- Siouxsie completed the vocals, Steve added the piano to Let Go and both tracks were mixed - thus the speed with which both tracks were completed proved Steve's reasons for recording in The Garden to be sound.

THE VIDEO - As was the case with The Creatures Miss The Girl, Right Now and more recently the Banshees Dear Prudence videos, director Tim Pope was given the task of rendering the visuals to accompany the Swimming Horses single.

The day prior to the actual video 'shoot', Tim Pope visited a special horse hospital - therapy centre to film one of the patients in the training pool (a pool in which the horse (s) is placed to swim about and use muscles it wouldn't normally use, in the hope that it will prove remediable to the creature's complaint).  Unfortunately what wax captured on celluloid wasn't exactly what the Banshees had expected.  Whereas Tim had created a literal translation of the songs title and filmed everything underwater (showing the movement of the horses body and legs as it swam), the group had imagined that the scenes to be used would be filmed from above the surface, thus enabling the viewer to see only the horses head flying about in the water.  So the resulting video (due to conflicting ideas) didn't quite work out as well as anticipated, though it still far outshines a good many videos I'm subjected to nightly.  Personally I don't think the Banshees will be 100% satisfied with a video until the undertake the task themselves.

THE RESULTS - Swimming Horses was released in March and considering the success of its predecessor Dear Prudence, I had expected it to enter the charts at a reasonably high position and then climb to one deserving of its originality and quality.  But once again it bore no resemblance whatsoever to any of the banal offerings of the here today gone tomorrow artistes (and I use that word loosely) that seemingly forever swamp the charts, hence the listeners that maintain the presence of the aforementioned bores ignored it.  So having entered the chart in the upper thirties, it climbed few places and not even an appearance on Top Of The Pops could prevent it from sinking out of sight in the weeks that followed.  If you ask me it's a case of casting pearls before swine.

Billy 'Chainsaw' Houlston

BACK

WE HUNGER...  June the Angel, in the beginning... this was the first track recorded that Siouxsie had a pre-written lyric for.  Using it as a foundation, Budgie spent the day working on a suitable drum sound.  Having established the right drum beat he was joined by Siouxsie on vocals, meanwhile Steve and Robert were busy working on their parts.  In doing so they built it into a song as they went along.  It took three or four different 'takes' involving just Siouxsie and Budgie, before a backing track was recorded, to which Steve and Robert added their individual contributions and the song remained virtually untouched since then.

TAKE ME BACK... November Powerplant studio, the penultimate track recorded and the only one Steve doesn't play on.  Siouxsie already had lyrics... Budgie performed his customary search for a drum sound and developed a kind of 'shuffling' beat, over which Siouxsie sang her lyrics.  Simultaneously, Robert sat at a keyboard in the control room, on which (on hearing Siouxsie and Budgie) he immediately began playing an accompanying tune and the track was recorded as a demo.  This was taken a step further, when they spent half the next day continually going through it until they'd worked it into a song.

BELLADONNA... this has more history to it than any other track on the album.  It had been around in song form for a year before it was recorded, originally having been written for the Kiss In The Dreamhouse album.  Around the time they were doing Slowdive, Steve acquired a six string bass.  During recording he took it away from the studio and in the self imposed solitude, wrote all the chords to Belladonna.  Then, during a day when Budgie and McGeoch weren't in the studio, Steve began playing the Belladonna tune on a six string bass, to which Siouxsie sang the lyrics to Cocoon.  It was recorded, but on hearing the 'playback' they both decided that the music wasn't suitable for the lyrics, so it was shelved.  Then one evening in the Angel (during the Hyaena sessions), Steve showed Robert all the  Belladonna chord changes and Robert went into the studio and started playing it.  Budgie joined in and Steve wrote a bass-line for it, on the spot.

SWIMMING HORSES... June the Angel, one night Steve and Siouxsie were seated at pianos (Siouxsie's being a toy one), randomly running around the keyboards... when they hit on a tune worthy of further development, which they showed Robert.  He played it through a couple of times, then suddenly began playing an entirely different tune.  Siouxsie and Steve encouraged him to continue, Budgie accompanied him on drums and Swimming Horses was born.  It was recorded the following day when Mike Hedges set about re-recording it with a 'dummy head' microphone (this is a fibre glass mannequins head with microphones built into its ears... to produce a simulation of the sounds someone listening would hear, a binaural effect) installed inside the piano.  At that time a six minute piano and drum track was recorded, but it was two or three weeks before they resumed work on the track, by which time Siouxsie had written lyrics for it.  She recorded a rough vocal, Robert added guitar, then it was edited down to four minutes (from its original six minute version... a process by which they don't usually record). It was left again and it was December before, with the addition of Steve's bass contribution, it was completed.

BRING ME THE HEAD OF THE PREACHERMAN... November, the Powerplant, though this was the last track recorded, it was started way back when, during their last visit to Australia and Japan, as something they could all bash along to in sound checks.  During the first period in Angel, an eight minute version was recorded with everyone just 'jamming' away with Siouxsie (though there were no lyrics at that stage) and it remained like that for ages, though it was always in the back of Steve's mind that they would eventually use it as a song.  So to the Powerplant, the track resurfaced, but instead of recording a long version and later editing it down to a more compact length, they continually rehearsed it in the studio until they had eventually reduced it to what they thought would end up being the song, before recording it.  It was one of the only tracks recorded (originally) with all four of them in the studio at the same time, but of that version they only kept the drum track, the bass and guitar were added later (at the Roundhouse), which was one of the last times Robert joined the group in the studio, because of his commitments recording The Cure album 'The Top'.

RUNNING TOWN... the Angel, period one... and a track that was very nearly scrapped in its formative moments.  It began with Steve playing the bass line in the studio and Budgie playing a 'marching' beat to it.  Steve wasn't happy with the results and declared it should be scrapped, but Hedges intervened, insisting that it was a good bass line and that they should work on it.  Then it took on another form.  For ages it was referred to as 'Dead and Barryed', because of a recording they did of it with a James Bond type intro (hence the reference to John Barry... he being the composer of the Bond theme... in the title) but this was changed.  Then Steve and Budgie started to do it as a backing track (all the time trying to imagine what a song with just bass and drums would sound like) Robert was playing guide piano, trying to change (during the song) when Steve did, and at the same time working out what were to become his piano and guitar parts...phew.  Siouxsie added her lyrics much later and it was continually rehearsed until it was a proper song, to avoid editing it after it was recorded.

POINTING BONE... this was actually recorded out of the country in the Europa Film recording studio, in Stockholm (Sweden), at the same time they recorded Dear Prudence, In July.  The backing track for Dear Prudence had been recorded, when they just began playing their instruments in the studio.  Siouxsie started making up lyrics as the music developed and the whole thing just occurred... simple 'eh?  All that remained to be done on their return to England was for Robert to add his wha-wha guitars.

BLOW THE HOUSE DOWN... June the Angel, it started with Steve and Robert out on a strange instrument shopping spree, to find things to experiment with in the studio.  Their spree unearthed an Hawaiian steel guitar, a Chinese fiddle, an assortment of peculiar percussive pieces and the most prized find, an ancient sitar with all its strings missing.  They bought replacement strings, returned to the studio and restrung it.  Then Robert began discovering it.  Curious by the sounds, Budgie began playing along on drums, both of them repeating the same thing for about ten minutes and it was all recorded.  Then two or three weeks later, Robert translated the recorded sitar piece for piano, by which time Siouxsie had written some lyrics and she, Robert and Budgie recorded a backing track (with Siouxsie doing a guide vocal) which ran too long, so it was edited until they were all satisfied with it.

With the majority of the album having been recorded during June '83 (the Angel), July '83 (Europa Film) and November '83 (Powerplant) ...the digital transfers (a method which enables the user to bounce any recorded thing to any alternative position on the 'track'... the process is done electronically) and overdubbing commenced in December '83 (Roundhouse) to finish off vocals, guitars and things.  Still in the Roundhouse studio January 24th '84, they introduced woodwind player Robin Canter for the first time.  His involvement was brought about by Hedges, who had been working with an avant-garde orchestra called 'Man Jumping'... their organiser had recommended Canter to him, he subsequently recommended him to the Banshees.  He went in the studio to re-do all the parts Steve had done on keyboards, on Belladonna, Blow The House Down, Running Town and Bring Me The Head Of The Preacherman.  He tried some things on other tracks, but they didn't work.  He also preformed with a variety of woodwind instruments on Running Town and Blow The House Down (he did return on one other occasion, when the Banshees required a Spanish flavoured trumpet sounding piece on Bring Me The Head Of The Preacherman... he responded by producing what appeared to be a snake charmers flute( in actual fact it was a champagne flute) and proceeded to wail away on it.  The 'wailing' piece was recorded and (later) using digital transfer, they created a solo out of what he'd played, by punching in various bits here and there.

They were interrupted (again) to work on 'Play At Home', the 'b' sides to Swimming Horses and on February 10th '84 to perform 'live' on the television music programme 'The Tube', when they performed Running Town, Blow The House Down and Bring Me The Head Of The Preacherman.  Then on 20th February they returned to Roundhouse for two weeks to start mixing.  Still not finished they returned yet again in March for the final mix and the album was complete.  So to the name... Hyaena.  When Siouxsie and Steve first talked about a name for the album, they decided they wanted something a bit Spanish or Mexican flavoured, but the music didn't really turn out like that.  For ages they tried thinking of a Spanish word or something in Spanish that people would recognise.  Steve called it 'Diablo' for a while, but eventually they dropped that angle and came up with Hyaena, Siouxsie thought it suited tracks like We Hunger.  They wanted something spiky and Hyaena seemed to fit perfectly.

Billy 'Chainsaw' Houlston

BACK

The Wonderland angle for the programme originates from the period when Steve and Robert Smith were recording The Glove album (Blue Sunshine)... completely off the top of his head, Robert produced the little gem, 'the Banshees shouldn't be doing tours, they should be doing something really ambitious like 'The Wizard Of Oz' on stage'.

It took the group ages to think of a theme for the film, then Steve remembered Robert's words of wisdom and thought they could do something similar... like 'Alice In Wonderland'... which would tie in nicely with their Wonderland records.

the suggestion aroused everyone's imaginations and the most ridiculous ideas emerged (which were eventually included in the film), like Siouxsie suggesting they (the group) could all be Alice.  Once they had a starting point... instead of writing it off as just plain silly, everything started moving and things developed from there.

Each member of the group formulated a story for their solo spots in the film...

STEVE'S STORY... he's always been fascinated by assassins and what possesses someone to go out and cold bloodedly shoot someone famous.  He already had something partly written on that theme, so he completed it as his individual contribution.

the idea was to make it appear as timeless as possible... Steve in the room putting the gun together, a figure that could have been any assassin, anywhere and at any time.  The teletyper was used as the medium through which reports of a shooting were disjointedly revealed... the accompanying narrative being the voice of someone reading directly from the teletyper as each word appeared, trying to comprehend what is happening, but being prevented from doing so because all the reporting seems to have got confused in the transmission... different assassinations (attempted and successful) from different periods of time (Kennedy, The Pope, Reagan), tumbling together from the teletyper keys.

BUDGIE'S STORY... was based on the (now deceased) Stanley Holloway monologue 'Albert and the Lion'.  When compiling inspiration, he called on different periods of his life, from childhood memories of listening to its recital on scratchy 78 r.p.m. records... through his personal attempts at reciting it with his mates down the local pub, never being able to remember the proper words and substituting his own... to the monologue being part of a cassette tape, the only thing he possesses with his mother's voice on it.

When he sat down to write what he could remember of the words (as providence would have it), a half hour Stanley Holloway special came on the radio.  He recorded it and transcribed the original words, then changed them to tie in with the inclusion of one of the animals he and Siouxsie (as The Creatures) adopted at London Zoo... Gregory Peccary, in the place of the lion.

When it was definitely decided that the 'Albert and the Lion' angle was going to be used, it was necessary to obtain permission for its use from Mr. Holloway's estate.  They liked Budgie's version and agreed to its use.

SIOUXSIE'S STORY... she decided that her story would represent a twist on the 'yellow brick road' (re: The Wizard Of Oz), which related to her recently (then) experiencing a really awful time, when in answer to repeated requests, she had gone home and the resulting visit was a complete disaster.  What happened on that occasion ;prompted her to vow never to go home again (in retrospect maybe an over reaction, but under the circumstances a natural one... the kind I'm sure we've all been party to at sometime in our lives).  At that moment in time, Siouxsie felt as though she was part of a living nightmare, just like the character in her story.

If that's left you thinking surely Siouxsie's real experience could not have been as horrific as the one portrayed in her story, think again.  There are different extremes of horror... the horror experienced by the girl in the story has an element of the unbelievable intentionally injected into it, so that in the end you're left feeling relieved, whilst thinking 'well that couldn't happen'... whereas what Siouxsie experienced during her real return home was far more horrific in comparison, the horror being intensified by the fact that what happened to her was very real.

This (Siouxsie explained... and I agree) can be just as relative during dreams... if you are dreaming about every day life (and situations) and really nasty things are happening to you, or people you know really exist (outside the dream), the emotional reactions experienced are far more intense than those experienced when you dream of something so unnaturally horrific that it renders itself unbelievable.

ROBERT'S STORY... well, he'd left it later... and later... and later... until, when the deadline was upon him... he sat down...paused momentarily... and proceeded to create what you see on your TV screen... something that cane be seen as self interrogation... an interpretation of a sate of mind... his own?... maybe...

The idea behind the Wonderland theme, is that the Banshees have their own little world... which is why everyone (then) was involved in the making of the film, to give a glimpse of some of the things that go within the world.

The most interesting outcome of the film has proved to be how much more revealing it is compared with anything they've done before in the respect that it's more revealing (characteristically) of the four individuals that are (at least were, since the filming and the actual screening, Robert left) the Banshees.  This is naturally more noticeable in their individual stories, each one being almost totally directed by its author, with the absolute minimum assistance from the TV people (who they found extremely easy to communicate with), the group also remained involved with everything right through to the final editing.  On viewing their stories, they appeared as mini solo films, which proved revealing in the sense that each individual members character emerged in a different way from how it does on stage, records or during interviews.  This is probably due to the fact that each film was made with an individualistic approach as opposed to the usual group one.

The 'Mad Hatters Tea Party' scenes proved to be equaling revealing, as the Banshees were portrayed as possessing much more of a sense of humour than they've ever been credited with, conclusive evidence that they can (and do) laugh at themselves.

On to the musical interludes... in the same way that Wonderland is the label and the (mental) family, in order to present the film as a complete little world unto itself, the group decided to feature a song by each The Creatures (Weathercade), The Glove (A Blues In Drag) and for the finale Siouxsie and the Banshees (Circle).  Choosing to do this, presented The Glove with only two options for inclusion... either of the instrumental tracks from their album.  They couldn't use a track with Robert singing, it would have put more emphasis on him and upset the balance of their appearance... and they couldn't introduce Landray as a third element, because it would have made the idea of keeping all the musical interludes confined within the four members of the Banshees, redundant.  By keeping to their original idea, they maintained the impact of them coming together as Siouxsie and the Banshees to perform Circle at the end of the Wonderland section of the film.

The programme ended with the inclusion of the Royal Albert Hall footage filmed by RPM... Voodoo Dolly and Helter Skelter.

I think the film was always destined to be different from anything else the Banshees have ever done (the only other thing similar being videos... but they're designed to be more representative of the song, rather than the group) and because of that, was bound to surprise a lot of people... which it undoubtedly did, though I think some of the harsher comments made about the film were unprecedented.

Billy 'Chainsaw' Houlston

BACK

Accompanied by John Valentine Carruthers, embarking on his first recording stint with the Banshees, they flew to the Bavarian studios on 25th August... and spent the first three days firstly transferring the existing tapes from one type of tape (there are two different types of digital tape) to another, then recording John's guitar tracks.  In order for him to familiarise himself with the e.p's four tracks (OVERGROUND, VOICES, PLACEBO EFFECT, RED OVER WHITE) he did two things... first he listened to their original recordings, then he listened to Robert's recorded interpretations - which John had accompanied the group to replace.  The end result of John's contribution suggests, that he ignored what Robert had recorded and chose to stick closer to the original recordings... in particular on Voices and Placebo Effect... but he had no choice when it came to recording Red Over White.  Although he'd been playing it on tour (the only one of the four tracks he had played before) because it's probably the only Banshees song that constantly changes from one performance to the next, John was forced to rely on his imagination and creativity to fulfill his task (no problem)... and finally, he introduced some acoustic passages to Overground.  During the remainder of the time, Budgie played timpani and Steve played bass on Overground and Placebo Effect (having already recorded the rest of their contributions during an earlier session in England)... and Siouxsie recorded vocals for all the tracks.  For a variety of reasons, the group had to extend their stay in Bavaria, until the afternoon of September 6th, when they finished mixing Voices about  ten minutes before they departed to catch their flight back to England.  

The Thorn e.p. was released on 12" single format on Wonderland records on October 19th.  In The Thorn's formative days, the plan was to release it in 12" format only... and its accompanying press release stated details to that effect.  Then, while I was putting the finishing touches to this issue, an unexpected occurrence has altered the original plan... the d.j's on national radio (prior and since its release) have given the record and extensive and surprising amount of airplay, when doing so picking on one track in particular (of the four on the e.p.)... Overground.  This has caused an overwhelming demand for a 7" single release of Overground.  So, from November 2nd... a 7" single version of Overground coupled with Placebo Effect (both tracks taken from The Thorn e.p.) will be available.

Billy 'Chainsaw' Houlston

BACK

The actual DAZZLE track recorded for the Hyaena album has an orchestrated beginning and end, the orchestration being where the track originated.

For the strings e.p. tape recordings of the tracks to be used were sent to Gini Hewes (remember Humoresque and The Vemonettes?) to be scored for an orchestra, also included was an additional tune Siouxsie had written on the piano.  When it was time to record the e.p. the orchestra arrived, performed all the tracks for inclusion, but just before they packed and went home Siouxsie presented them with the extra tune and requested they perform it repeatedly until instructed to stop.  They complied and their ten minute performance was taped and retained as something to be worked on at a later date.

Then, during the groups third period as The Angel (when they spent the time translating all their ideas into proper songs) Steve, Robert and Budgie listened to the orchestration through headphones and immediately began playing along with it.  So satisfactory were the results, that all that was needed was for Siouxsie to provide suitable lyrics (which she did) and the vocals were recorded on top of the already completed backing track.  Mind you, it had to be savagely edited from an original five or six minutes to what you hear as the opening track on Hyaena.

It has since then been edited even further, thus (in my opinion) justifying its release as a single rather than the group just releasing another track off the album.

Upon first hearing that Dazzle was being considered as the next single release, based on the album track, I had my doubts, but the new revised version has certainly reversed that opinion.

The orchestrated intro has been considerably shortened, likewise the orchestral fade out - and the actual word DAZZLE (you'll recognise it when you hear it - it's vibrant) has been introduced into the song much earlier, resulting in the first chorus appearing that much earlier than on the album track.

As for the 12" version - 12" usually indicates extended dance mix and this is no exception, seven and a half minutes of Hedges total mayhem - I defy anyone to sit through this one at the local disco.

Then there's the b-sides... Siouxsie, Steve and Budgie once again met in The Garden (and once again unaccompanied by a Cure committed Robert) during Easter weekend (21st and 22nd April),

DAY ONE:- the writing and recording of the two resulting tracks occurred similarly to the b-sides of Swimming Horses.  Prior to the studio session, Steve had recorded a demo at home on drum machine and organ of the track I PROMISE, to which (once in the studio) he added some more keyboards and guitar.  Then Budgie provided a proper drum beat and further percussion, whilst Siouxsie pondered over suitable lyrics to accompany the whole caboodle.

Then, at about two o'clock in the morning... it was always the groups intention to go straight into the studio and do the second track there and then on the spot, so they did.

They began with the drum sound and no sooner had they started when Murray (full details of his identity were revealed in phase two: issue one) entered proclaiming the discovery of a videodrome guitar sound - "I've got something I want to play you..."

TAKE ONE:- Steve took possession of the instrument and it's acquired sound and with Budgie on drums embarked on a videodrome thrash.

TAKE TWO:- without hesitation Budgie played another full drum - kit on top of the first take, accompanied by the indefinable guitar sound of Murray Mitchell (but you'll have to listen carefully to hear his contribution - it's only noticeable at the immediate beginning and end of the track).  The track's titled THROW THEM TO THE LIONS - a four and a half minute excursion of pure unadulterated psychotic passion - I love it.

Day one closed with everyone collapsing into a quivering heap on the studio floor.

DAY TWO:- for Siouxsie it started prior to her arrival at the studio, when she began preparing lyrics for I Promise - but the studio day began with the recording of additional keyboards for the same track and once she had completed the lyrics, the vocals were recorded.

Then back to Throw Them To The Lions, on which Steve played keyboards and Budgie acoustic bass, after which Steve added electric bass - by which time it was eight o'clock in the morning, time to go home, so what they hadn't finished had to be postponed until mixing day.

Which as it transpired was only two days later (25th), so with the tracks still fresh in their minds they rushed in early that Wednesday - Budgie added more percussion, Steve finished off the guitars on I Promise and finally Siouxsie completed the vocals.  Which meant only the mixing remained.  Still it proved to be yet another mammoth session in the studio, with our bleary eyed buddies not witnessing the rays of morning until eight o'clock, yet again...

DAZZLE is scheduled for release prior to the Hyaena album, and should be available in the record shops on 25th May.

Billy 'Chainsaw' Houlston

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